The Cracked Slipper is the story of Cinderella after "happily ever after" has worn off, and real life has set in.

Despite being based on Cinderella, this book breaks away from the fairy tale, and becomes its own story. Starting with the ending of the original story, Cracked Slipper tells the tale of Eleanor realizing that "love at first sight" probably isn't a good basis for a stable relationship.

This book is 80% Eleanor falling out of love with Prince Charming or attending parties, and only 20% action. The main conflict of the story didn't happen until the last few chapters. Well, I suppose you could argue that the whole Dorian thing was the main conflict of the story, but even that doesn't get wrapped up until nearly the end of the book. I was expecting the action to start somewhere around the middle of the story - three fourths of the way through the book, I was starting to worry that I'd never get to it. It felt a bit late to be introducing the conflict, and the entire thing was wrapped up quickly as well. To be honest, it almost felt like the action was just tacked on at the last minute to make the book appeal to a wider audience. I did enjoy the resolution; it just felt like there should have been more of a build-up than, "Oh no! The horn that we haven't mentioned in 10 chapters is suddenly missing!"

I liked how the world was set up. All of the animals talk, all of the nobles have pet birds to assist them (suddenly singing birds doing chores doesn't sound so far-fetched), and unicorns help the kingdom mine a stone found exclusively in places where dragons live. Instead of fairy godmothers, magic is worked by wizards and witches. All the changes take Cracked Slipper from being a rewritten fairy tale to being a full-fledged fantasy story.

There were a few grammatical errors, but none so distracting that it interrupted the story.

Also, is it just me, or is it hard not to picture Chou sounding like Gilbert Gottfried? >_>